PRO FOOTBALL

PRO FOOTBALL; Chiefs and 49ers Come to Terms on Montana Trade at Last

By TOM FRIEND,

Published: April 21, 1993

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 20—
Joe Montana, who helped the 49ers win four Super Bowls and was urged by fans to run for mayor, is officially leaving San Francisco.

Tonight, the 49ers traded the 36-year-old quarterback -- along with safety David Whitmore and a 1994 third-round draft pick -- to Kansas City for the Chiefs' first-round selection (the 18th over all) in the National Football League draft on Sunday.

"Well, Kansas City to the Super Bowl," said a former 49ers linebacker, Matt Millen.

Montana, a three-time Super Bowl most valuable player, however, may not be able to wear his familiar jersey No. 16 with the Chiefs. The number was worn previously by Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson and has been retired. What to Do?

"I wouldn't like them to un-retire it," Dawson said. "Lamar Hunt retired my number, not that I ever asked him to, but he said on the field in 1976 that no Chief would ever wear 16 again."

Montana was unavailable for comment, but will hold a news conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. Wide receiver Jerry Rice, who has caught a bushel of Montana's passes, was not surprised that the quarterback is gone.

"I had a feeling when they told him he would be the starter and he turned that down he was gone," Rice said. "I plan on giving him a call this week to just wish him the best. I feel like he can still play. He'll really help Kansas City out.

"I think when he was ready to come back last year, if he had come back and if they had named him the starting quarterback then, he would still be around. But he was healthy and he was ready and they didn't activate him."

When Montana was conducting a search for a new team over the last month, there was a heavy backlash from fans in the Bay area, and the 49ers -- in an apparent public-relations ploy -- suddenly started an all-out campaign to bring Montana back.

On Sunday, they named him their "designated" starter ahead of the league's most valuable player, Steve Young. But Montana, believing the 49ers were insincere, turned them down. He had asked to be traded to Kansas City, who had already agreed with Montana on a three-year, $10 million contract -- worth $4 million in 1993 and $4 million in 1994. "Both teams are pleased that the matter has reached a conclusion on terms that they feel are fair and reasonable," said 49ers President Carmen Policy, who made tonight's deal reluctantly.

"I think anytime you've got a legend like that who's no longer a teammate, it's not a real happy moment," 49ers tight end Jamie Williams said.

Minor details nearly delayed today's trade. The negotiators, Policy of the 49ers and Carl Peterson of the Chiefs, were known to have an acrimonious relationship, and someone familar with their discussions said today, "It's a one-phone-call-away type of deal, but that's if their egos don't get in the way."

Montana, though, had previously been assured by the 49ers' owner, Edward DeBartolo Jr., that the team would "not stand in the way" of a trade to the Chiefs. But that changed. DeBartolo was hurt that Montana still asked out of San Francisco on Monday.

"Joe's burned his bridge with them, and they've burned their bridge with him," someone familiar with both parties said. "Sad it ended this way. Eddie always thought Joe would come back. He's very hurt. Eddie thought Joe owed him to stay with the 49ers the rest of his career." Feuding Pair

As a result, Policy and the 49ers were in no particular hurry to complete a deal, and it did not help that Peterson and Policy feuded last year because of a failed Derrick Thomas-for-Young trade. The holdup was a mere second-round pick in 1993. The 49ers had agreed to package Montana and Whitmore for the Chiefs' first-round pick, but the Chiefs wanted that second-round pick and the 49ers wanted to give only a fourth-round pick.

The compromise was the third-round pick next year. As a result, Kansas City will get the 74th pick on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Phoenix, which had pursued Montana for a month, has now opened negotiations with Dallas's free agent quarterback, Steve Beurerlein.

Montana's exit enables Young to be the team's starter, although Young still has never been totally accepted by San Francisco fans.

"Steve has been in the shadow of Montana so long, he's needed to subjugate some of his own personality," said Young's agent, Leigh Steinberg. "The hard-core Montana loyalists would react with tremendous anger to any statement that Steve was a quality quarterback or that Joe was past his prime. So Steve had to toe a very unnerving political tightrope, and knew the Montana fans were monitoring every word said by either Steve or the club executives and that any word by him would provoke some response. So, Steve carefully bit his tongue for six years and stayed away from any comments.